Speaking of Jesus
Monday, October 10th, 2005The hot topic right now among those crafting language for interfaith dialogue, is the ever recurring question: How do we speak of the Word made flesh today? We know how we have spoken and written in the past. We older folks learned our catechism well. How will we talk of the Christ to our Jewish colleagues, to our Buddhist and Islamic friends? Or perhaps we have just decided we will not speak of this Jesus at all. Can we craft language that will be much more sensitive than Dominus Iesus? Can we sift out truth from insensitive language?
Where is the Spirit hovering today to bring forth the Word? What fruits of the Spirit do we detect among our Jewish brothers and sisters, in Islam’s Q’uran? How do we speak of the Word of God today – that same Word that spoke on Sinai and through the prophets? That Word which has fused itself to human DNA taken from a young Jewish woman? Is the Word struggling to emerge in Iraq? What will it look like when it does? Who is this Jesus who so scandalizes us by his Jewish particularity? What if he isn’t “our” Jesus, but rather the one who has come to show all peoples what the wedding of God with their humanity looks like? He is either for all of us or he is not what we say he is. Much for us to think deeply about…to pray about…to try to find words for…yes?